FAQ's

Contained here are a number of questions our support personnel see frequently. We hope this will help users obtain the answers as quickly as possible by checking here first.

I can't get Multi-Edit to show in the Open With context menu list. How do I fix this?

It appears that the registry entry for Mew32.exe is getting corrupted and fails to show once it does. To fix the issue, delete the following registry key and the next time you bring up the Open With menu and use the browse button to locate the Mew32.exe file, it will be added to your list.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\Mew32.exe

I have a macro someone created that I want to use in my copy of Multi-Edit. How do I do that?

First, save the *.s file somewhere easily remembered. I chose to put it in a folder in my installation directory called AddedMacSrc.

Then, having done that, open the file and compile it by going to Tools | Execute Compiler or hitting F9 if you use the default keymap. Choose to Compile CMacWin Macro. It will then compile and create the file *(macrofile).mac in your Mac directory of the install directory. You may need to close out of Multi-Edit and restart after that.

Go to Macro | Load… from the main menu and type in the name of the macro. Then, when you want to use it, all you have to do is hit Macro | Run… and type it in. Of course, Multi-Edit being as flexible and customizable as it is, you could assign a hot key or a command in your menus to run the macro as well, it’s all up to you!

How do I assign a macro to a key combination?

Go to Tools | Customize… | General from the main menu bar, press the large Keys/Commands… button, pick a location in the Command Mapping dialog where you'd like to position the command (usually the area flagged for user assignments), and click the Insert button. Then fill in the Name: field with whatever name you want to give the mapping, and the Command line: field with module_name^my_macro, where module_name is the name in the macro_file command at the top of the macro source file (note that this module name need not be the filename, although it often is). If the macro takes any command-line-style arguments, put them after the command, with a space separating them from it. Then click on the button with the ellipsis (three dots) to the right of the Primary Key: field, and press the keystroke combination you want to assign. Then just back out of the sequence of dialog boxes by accepting all changes, and your key mapping should be functional.

How do I associate file extensions with Multi-Edit in Windows Explorer

There are two methods, each with a different purpose. The first method creates the standard Open file associations you're used to, the ones which, for instance, cause Windows to open a particular application when you double-click on a filename in Windows Explorer. The steps to do this are as follows:

1. go to Tools | Customize… from the main menu bar;
2. press the Filename extensions… button to display the Filename Extension Setup dialog;
3. select the extension group you want to associate with Multi-Edit from the list on that dialog;
4. click on the Edit button to bring up the Edit Filename Extension Setup dialog for that extension group;
5. check the Associate to Desktop Shell checkbox;

This works by creating the familiar Open entries in the Windows registry that you see when you go to Tools | Folder Options… | File Types in Windows Explorer or Folder Options | File Types from the Windows Control Panel.

The second method puts an extra entry on the Windows Explorer right-click context menu that reads Edit with Multi-Edit when the file is the proper type. This is what Microsoft calls a shell extension. To do this:

• go to Tools | Customize… from the main menu bar;
• press the Filename extensions… button to display the Filename Extension Setup dialog;
• make sure the Create “Edit with Multi-Edit” shell extension checkbox is checked;
• make sure the radio button next to the Include text box is selected;
• add the extensions for which you want the context-menu option to appear to the Include text box, separated by spaces, commas, or semi-colons.

It might seem more natural to have Multi-Edit's installer set these file associations up during installation, as many applications do; however we think programs shouldn't force such decisions on users. If our users are anything like us, they likely already have a lot of associations set up with other programs that they don't want modified, so Multi-Edit leaves such choices to them. This behavior is by design.